The setup

Again using my wife as the guinea pig I setup the camera to show how simple it is to do a portrait shot.  To camera left is a Canon 430EX with shoot through umbrella. In the back is a Canon 420EX with a Honlphoto snoot. on the right is a SP studio systems 5 in 1 reflector with the gold side towards the subject I believe the camera settings were 1/250 f2.8 iso 400. The hair light separates the subject from the back ground. In the making it look natural post the setup was nearly identical except that I used the white wall camera right to reflect light onto the dark side of my wife's face.  Use a wide aperture when taking a portrait, I set up the center focus point, focus on the subjects eyes, recompose and take the shot.

I came across a pretty good site last night and thought I would share the link with you.  The link is to a site that has instructional videos for photo shop and light room.  The site is "The digital Photography connection.  See link in side bar

Making it look natural

Part of what makes a photo interesting is that it looks natural and not a stiff pose.  Here is an example of a posed shot of my wife doing what she does naturally, talk on the phone.  In order for me to keep my skills honed in the semi off season I grab the wife or kids and ask them to stand in for a lighting set up.  Here she is working on her adoption work and was kind enough to get a quick pose or two while talking with the other Indiana AAC rep.  Notice that the light looks natural even though just out of frame camera left there is a 45" shoot though umbrella with a 430EX and behind her is a 420EX with snoot for hair light.  This setup takes about 5 minutes and can be used for a single or double portrait.